A new independent survey commissioned by Experience Invest has quizzed over 500 buy-to-let landlords on how they are planning to manage their property portfolios this year.
The research shows that the vast majority of UK property investors are looking to maintain or grow the size of their portfolios in the coming 12 months, with a mere 11% planning to reduce the number of assets they own. It comes despite some suggestions that investors were turning their backs on bricks and mortar as an investment class.
In terms of the most popular cities, London (35%) just beat Manchester (33%) to take the top spot. Liverpool (25%) and Nottingham (15%) came in third and fourth, followed by Bristol and Leeds, at 14% and 13%. The rest of the top ten consisted of Birmingham and Newcastle (both 12%), Luton (11%), and a four-way tie between Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Sheffield (all 8%).
When looking at the types of property that investors were considering investing in this year, houses (67%) were the most popular, followed by flats (54%). New-build residential properties also look set to receive a lot of attention, with 39% of respondents keen to invest in this area, as do student accommodation properties (24%).
Commercial (34%) and semi-commercial (21%) real estate were the other leading asset types among UK property investors.
Jerald Solis, Business Development and Acquisitions Director at Experience Invest, commented on the findings: “In light of tighter tax regulations on landlords and on-going Brexit uncertainty, there have been some doom and gloom predictions about the future of the UK property market. But today’s research shows that, as an investment asset, real estate is still hugely popular, with a significant number of property investors looking to grow their portfolio further in 2019.
It’s interesting to see that, while London remains the most popular location for property investment, other regions across the UK are very close behind. In particular, the North West has established itself as something of a ‘hotspot’ for buy-to-let investors, with cities like Liverpool and Manchester providing strong rental yields and healthy capital growth.”
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